Review: Extraordinary Sketchbooks exhibition

To coincide with Visual Arts Week, printmaker Jane Stobart officially opened an outstanding new show within the Mount House Gallery.

The detailed exhibition presents a fascinating art collection by fourteen artists, ranging from large scale expressive paintings and ink brush works, to intricately drawn resolutions, collagraphs and etchings. Uniquely, the resolved works of art on display can be seen alongside the original sketchbooks by the exhibiting artists, many of whom attended, making the opening so special.

The exhibition provides a richly informative diary of specialist working techniques. Various paintings and sketchbook studies were created on location by Martin Beak, Tyga Helme, Olivia Lomenech-Gill, Jonathan Parnham, Nick Pollard, Sadie Tierney and Edward Twohig; whilst experimental sculptural relief works using plaster and silver were adeptly originated by Meryl Ainslie. An interesting parallel is made by the exquisite drawings and investigative compositional design conveyed within the works of Michael Angove and Katherine Jones and the abstract explorations by Melanie Russell.

Jonathan Parnham, who also curated the exhibition, has successfully communicated the importance of artists’ visual notes and working explorations within their process. Jane Stobart and many others have regarded the exhibition as inspiring, for conveying the close link of sketchbooks to final works, which have not previously been seen within a gallery context.